


Hard Candy

by TallDarkAndHandsome



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Acceptance, Adventure, Battle, Existentialism, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Hiking, cat is feeling useless, catherine sad hours, chosen family, mountain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:47:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25104934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TallDarkAndHandsome/pseuds/TallDarkAndHandsome
Summary: Cat is feeling low after a battle. She turns to an unlikely friend for wisdom.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Hard Candy

It was just another day for Catherine La Paw. She and her ragtag group of friends had fought off a rather irksome quartet of Air Elementals. Thankfully, the fight did not last long. Most members of her crew were incredibly effective with their jaw-dropping spells and vanquished the creatures with ease. Catherine, on the other hand, knew almost nothing about spells. She was a fighter who primarily used her fists and claws. She found great joy in using nothing but her body as a weapon to annihilate her enemies. When it came to fighting the incorporeal, the last thing one wanted to be was a physical fighter. Still, Cat helped as best as she could.

‘Hey Paeleigh, can I come with you to help collect the magic water?’

Paeleigh slightly tilted her head to the side. ‘The water from Twilight Springs?’

‘Yeah,’ Cat replied.

‘Sure, let’s go!’

She followed Paeleigh upstairs with an Air Elemental trailing closely behind. Catherine’s job was to finish them off so Paeleigh could collect the water safely and quickly. But this particular Air Elemental was giving her a hard time. Every time she tried to punch or claw them, they didn’t seem as hurt as they should be and Cat was determined to defeat atleast one of them by herself. Being as resilient, stealthy and athletic as she was, badass was in her DNA. The frustration was building and building with every failed swipe of her claws and every useless flurry of blows. Turns out you don’t look very badass when you are throwing punches at thin air.

‘Hang on girl,’ Catherine felt a hand on her waist. ‘Can you go stand around 10 feet behind me?’

Catherine did as she said. Paeleigh walked closer to the Elemental and extended her hand in front of her, palm facing the ground. She closed her eyes and soon, Catherine felt tiny tremors under her feet. She jumped back instinctively and kept moving backwards until she didn’t feel the ground shaking anymore.

The Air Elemental was lying prone on the ground.

Cat’s jaw dropped open in shock. Paeleigh relaxed her hand and began stretching and massaging her fingers.

‘How did you do that?’ Cat exclaimed.

‘It’s called Earth Tremor,’ Paeleigh explained with a small smile. ‘I can make everyone in a certain radius around me become prone if the tremors are strong enough.’

‘That is so cool!’

Cat really thought so. As she watched Paeleigh scoop the magic water from the bathtub and pour it into the Bag of Holding, Cat let her mind wander to places that she rarely ventured to. She wondered on days like this, if she was worthy of being part of the crew. Finding a group of people that she trusted and respected was what Catherine wanted her whole life. When she joined the crew, she was awestruck and determined to prove herself worthy of such impressive friends. She hated being useless. She wanted to be there for her friends and she knows she does a good job of it most of the time. But it was on days like this, she questioned her worth.

On days like this, she wished she could be more.

* * *

Of course, her crew had saved the day by defeating all four Air Elementals. The tired but happy bunch were on their way to their next adventure – hiking to the top of Mount Emberly, getting to the Golden Groves and defeating the Big Bad. Everyone was running on adrenaline from the last fight. A draft of air flowed through the group, carrying the sounds of laughter and conversation as half-orcs and halflings and humans swapped stories and shared banter. They only had a couple of hours before they could stop the volcano from erupting and destroying the entire town. However, there was a certain jet-black Tabaxi cat in the party who was putting one foot in front of the other, lost in thought. Before she realized it, Catherine La Paw found herself hiking up the mountain next to Zendrey Leagallow.

‘Hey, Zendrey?’

Zendrey turned to look up at her, her head tilting to the side in a familiar way. ‘Yeah?’

Catherine didn’t know how to say what was on her mind. She wasn’t ignorant to the fact that she never really had a one-on-one conversation with Zendrey before. So she blurted out:

‘What is the meaning of life?’

As soon as the words left her mouth, Cat was struck by the ridiculousness of her question. It was a strange thing for her to say. Catherine La Paw chased pretty barn owls on a whim and danced with strangers like there’s no tomorrow. She seemed like someone who wouldn’t allocate the brain space to entertain existential questions.

Zendrey blinked once. Seeing the slightly embarrassed look on Cat’s face, she decided it was meant to be funny. ‘Haha, good one.’

Catherine didn’t say anything for a moment, wondering if she should press on. For some reason, she felt like she could trust Zendrey.

‘No, really,’ she plodded on. ‘I think… it’s just walking in these woods and being one with nature is really making me think about my mortality and my purpose in this world.’

Her spine straightened at the realization of what she had said. She often blurted things out loud, only to realize it had come from deep within her subconscious. 

Zendrey shrunk slightly away from Catherine, her wary eyes darting around her face. ‘Are you possessed?’

Catherine laughed automatically. Fair enough, she mused.

‘Nah, don’t worry,’ she reassured, hoping to change the topic. ‘I think I am just hungry and delirious.’

‘Did someone say they’re possessed?’ The pair heard an old woman’s voice coming from the front of the party. ‘Who do I need to save this time?’

Catherine smiled. ‘It’s alright, Grandma Jo!’ She gestured to herself and the halfling next to her. ‘Zendrey and I were just chatting.’

‘Thank god’, the same voice croaked.

Zendrey averted her gaze to the ground and remained silent. Cat almost felt bad. She knew how much her friend had been through in the past few weeks and wondered if this question had been appropriate. The last thing she wanted was to cause Zendrey to have a breakdown because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.

‘Man, I don’t know.’

Catherine faltered in her steps, surprised she was continuing the conversation. Her jaw was churning with words unsaid.

Cat prompted cautiously. ‘Maybe… it is to be there for other people in whatever way you can.’

Zendrey nodded absently.

‘Probably. I think it is also important to find people you can rely on,’ she replied in a small voice, her eyes staring vacantly at the ground ahead of her. Catherine squeezed Zendrey’s shoulder for a brief moment before releasing her.

Cat felt her pointy ears twitch. She didn’t think she had anyone in her life like that anymore. But then, her mind took her to the countless number of times that Grandma Jo healed her. She thought about how Zendrey saved her life on the battlefield when she was unconscious. How Paeleigh jumped in to help when she was struggling.

She thought about how she saw herself as a temporary addition to the crew but didn’t notice how she had always been accepted as one of them from the start.

‘Hey, Grandma Jo?’

‘What is it, my dear?’

‘May I have a hard candy?’

A pause.

‘Of course dear,’ her eyes twinkled, knowingly. ‘Here you go.’

Catherine had consumed Grandma Jo’s candy before but it tasted different then. This time, it tasted like more.

**Author's Note:**

> I am currently playing Catherine La Paw in a kickass D&D campaign.


End file.
